[INTERVIEW] Korean firms urged to focus more on governance reforms Posted : 2021-02-03 09:07 Morrow Sodali picks Shinhan as leader in ESG management By Park Jae-hyuk Korean companies are still considered poor at improving their governance structures, despite their accelerated efforts to satisfy environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria, in order to follow global trends, a seasoned investor relations and corporate affairs specialist said. Christian Sealey, the CEO of Morrow Sodali Asia Pacific, advised businesses here to make more efforts in their governance reforms than for the other two factors of the ESG criteria at this moment. "Corporate governance has been regarded as a weakness of many Korean companies for a long time," the executive of the world's leading provider of corporate governance advisory services told The Korea Times. "It should be taken into account that there are cultural differences in the operation of the board of directors, but it is still some distance away from meeting global standards."